Author: Mike Farley (Page 6 of 117)

Top Chef All-Stars: epic battle to conclude season

March 31, 2011 /

We all knew this was going to be a heavyweight fight between Richard Blais and Mike Isabella on “Top Chef All-Stars.” But I think these two guys exceeded their own expectations as well as those of the viewers and judges and also their fellow chef-testants. The episode began with Richard and Mike chilling in their hotel suite–and with host Padma Lakshmi telling the eliminated chef-testants that they would be making a small bite (they call it an amuse-bouche) which would determine who the two finalists would be having as sous chefs on their respective teams. Mike wound up with Jamie (ha!), Carla and Tiffani; while Richard had Spike, Angelo and Antonia. Nicely done for Richard.

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External TV, Reality TV, Top Chef, TV

American Idol: back down to earth

March 31, 2011 /

Last week, the performances on “American Idol” were among some of the best the show has ever seen. So where would they go this week, singing the songs of Elton John? They had to at least, to some degree, stumble back to earth. Right? Well some did, but some stayed on the same level they were on or even climbed higher. This is just a remarkable group of singers. Anyway, here is the recap as I saw it…….

THE AWESOME
I’m going to put one singer in this category today, and that was pimp spot lady, Haley Reinhart. Haley has been in the Bottom 3 multiple times, trying to find herself. But this time, she flew away, literally, singing a lounge version of “Bennie and the Jets.” I’m not keen on the Amy Winehouse impersonation thing, but Haley nailed the song, showing incredibly dynamics, and then just nailing the “Ben-Nay! Ben-Nay!” parts. J-Lo said “that was IT!” and that it all came together for Haley; Randy said it was the best performance of the night; and Steven said it was a well-placed chorus and added, “You sing sexy!” All of them were correct, and it was great to see Haley hit a home run in honor of baseball season starting today.

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American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

The Biggest Loser: pampering should wait

March 30, 2011 /

Last night’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” was an interesting one with a lot going on. It began with Kaylee talking about how she felt bad about thinking she was ready to go home last week and throwing the weigh-in. Some of her fellow contestants, and especially her trainer Cara, were pissed. Kaylee’s dad Moses pointed out that he knew Kaylee was tired of the show’s gameplay, and that’s why she was ready to go home. Interesting.

Then they all walked into the gym and host Alison Sweeney was waiting for them. As Hannah said, that is never a good thing for them! Alison showed them all video from when they first were told they made it to the show. It was similar to “American Idol” where the contestants who made it were in a holding room in a hotel conference area, and Ali walked in to let them know if they were in or out. But while 11 teams made it, Alison spoke about the 12th team that did not—mother and son Leanne and Vance. And she showed footage where she had told the “white team” that they could earn their way onto campus in midseason. So here they were, but they had to have surpassed the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss currently on the show, who was Kaylee with 25.32% Vance weighed in first, and he had begun at 379 pounds, which meant he had to lose about 90 pounds to grab a spot on campus. He lost 30 pounds, so was way off. Leanne began at 315 and lost 45 pounds, which was great but not nearly good enough. Okay, so that was that. But both were told they were still eligible to win the “at-home” prize of $100K.

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External TV, Reality TV, The Biggest Loser, TV

American Idol: best reaction ever?

March 25, 2011 /

If you saw “American Idol” last night, you know what I mean by that subject line. But let me just say, this was one of the best episodes on the show, ever, for a few reasons. It was almost like a lite version of the season finale. Anyway, the show began with host Ryan Seacrest talking about how J-Lo’s husband, singer Marc Anthony, helped the contestants this past week by supplying in-ear monitors…and hey, they seemed to really work. Then came the group number, and with this being Motown week, they did Diana Ross’ classica “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and it wasn’t bad….but then came the best part….Stevie Wonder doing “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” with the Idols singing backup….and then Stevie wishing Steven Tyler a happy birthday and singing to him, while a cake was brought out. Way, way cool.

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American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

Top Chef All-Stars: here we go

March 24, 2011 /

Okay, now in a finale that seems to be lasting a month, because it is lasting a month, we are finally down to the final two chef-testants who will battle it out for the title of Top Chef next week. But first host Padma Lakshmi started out with celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck for the quickfire challenge, which would be to do a choice of a past quickfire challenge. However, the chefs would be assigned these by a competing chef. Yikes. Mike chose first and had Antonia do the “only canned food” challenge; Antonia gave richard the hot dog challenge, which wasn’t a huge stretch; and Richard gave Mike the one-pot-only challenge. Then Padma entered the kitchen halfway through, and added one more twist–they would have to use a crutch from a previous quickfire–Richard assigned Mike the “no utensils” challenge; Antonia gave Richard the one-hand-only challenge; and Antonia had the one remaining, which was to finish the task while having recently-eliminated Carla tied to her.

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External TV, Reality TV, Top Chef, TV

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